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A COUNTRY WIFE WHO MANAGES HER FAMILY'S BLUEGRASS BAND
SWAPS WITH A FREE SPIRITED WIFE WHO LETS HER KIDS PARTY HARD
AND ENJOYS HER RAPPER SON'S RACY LYRICS, ON ABC'S "WIFE SWAP"

This week on "Stockdale/Tonkovic", a wife who manages her bluegrass family band and shelters them from mass media swaps with a liberal, modern wife who allows her kids to do what they want, on "Wife Swap," WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on ABC. Each week from across the country, two families with very different values are chosen to take part in a two-week long challenge. The wives exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) to discover just what it's like to live another woman's life. It's a mind-blowing experiment that often ends up changing lives forever.

Fed up with city living and mass culture, Kathy (44) and Bruce (47) Stockdale moved to Ohio to a 150-year-old farm to begin a new, wholesome life. They have given their boys life skills that include clog-dancing and raising their own vegetables and meat. The family band includes sons Calvin (19), Charles (16), Jacob (14), and James (11), who've signed a contract to show up on time to all their household chores or risk incurring a fine. Work is rewarded with tokens so the boys can buy something they want. Kathy home schools them and insists they adhere to wholesome values, untainted by modern culture. The boys have little or no interaction with the outside world, and dating is out of the question, including for Calvin, who is 19.

Kathy heads to Illinois, where Laurie (45) and John (52) Tonkovic live with their two children, Paul (21) and Meghan (17), plus Paul's girlfriend Samantha (21) and Meghan's boyfriend Hector (19). Kids at heart themselves, Laurie and John would rather be friends to their kids than parents. Laurie believes that kids learn best by living freely, so she lets them have 100+ people at their wild backyard parties, and allows the kids' girlfriends and boyfriends to live with them, albeit in separate rooms in the basement. The kids don't have jobs and are completely supported financially, including 21-year-old Paul, aka T-Vic, who aspires to be a rapper.

In the first week of the swap, Kathy observes a Tonkovic hip hop hoedown, is offended by Paul's explicit rap lyrics, and is appalled by the kids' complete financial dependence and John's non-parenting. Meanwhile, at the Stockdales', Laurie talks to the boys about their social isolation and to Bruce about his stranglehold on their lives. In the second week, when the wives change the rules, Laurie introduces video games, TV and junk food, the band has to perform a rap song for real rappers and Calvin and Charles go on a date. Meanwhile, Kathy asks the Tonkovics to work on a farm to earn spending money, and brings in a priest in hopes of marrying Paul and Meghan to their partners. At the end of the swap, when the couples are reunited, will Kathy chill and let Calvin and Charles go on a second date? Will Laurie adopt a more wholesome way of life and learn to be stricter over her kids?

"Wife Swap" is an RDF USA production. It was created by Stephen Lambert and is executive-produced by Stef Wagstaffe and Michael Davies of Embassy Row ("Who Wants to be a Millionaire"). Stephanie Schwam Adams, Mike Gamson and Mitchell Rosenbaum are the co-executive producers. "Wife Swap" is broadcast with Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning. This program carries a TV-PG,L parental guideline.